Contemplative Currents

    Contemplative Currents is an online magazine for public scholarship that advances contemplative knowing, practicing, and living.

    Contemplation +

    is an ongoing series of dialogues that explores intersections of contemplation with diverse topics.

    All Dialogues

    What is Contemplation?

    is a series that interviews leading scholars in Contemplative Studies to address this driving question.

    All Interviews
  • James MacNee • June 18, 2026

    Workshop on Metaphor in Tibetan Contemplative Literature

    How do metaphors—and the poetic utterances they inhabit—participate in projects of transformation and cultivation within Tibetan literature? In short, how do metaphors work contemplatively?
  • JCS Editor • February 20, 2026

    ISCR 2025 Contemplative Studies Update

    The phenomena we study tend not to present a linear arc from life to death but a cyclical co-emergence of decomposition and re-emergence. 
  • JCS Editor • February 13, 2026

    AAR 2025 Contemplative Studies Update 

    All of these papers demonstrate the ways in which contemplation—in its plurality of methods and modalities—is responsive and resonant across boundaries. In this, contemplation is consistently a methodology of movement, of transformation to reshape how we relate to the world and ourselves.
  • JCS Editor • October 30, 2025

    Reflections on SENSEmaking

    A Symposium on Contemplative Technologies

    SENSEmaking: A Symposium on Contemplative Technologies was held by the Contemplative Sciences Center and its Contemplative Innovation + Research Co-Lab (CIRCL) on October 9th and 10th. Contemplative practices in esoteric and religious traditions have long sought to explore the horizon…
  • JCS Editor • December 20, 2024

    Conference Recap

    American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, 2024

    The American Academy of Religion held its 2024 Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, November 23-26. The Contemplative Studies unit sponsored or co-sponsored three panels exploring contemplative practices, experiences, and traditions. Topics ranged from Confucian contemplations for college students, to…
  • JCS Editor • March 28, 2024

    Revisit the Generative Contemplation Symposium 2023

    In April 2023, the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia hosted its first Generative Contemplation Symposium in Charlottesville, Virginia. This gathering convened experts in Contemplative Studies – scholars, philosophers, cognitive neuroscientists, artists, and Buddhist practitioners – to present…
  • JCS Editor • December 7, 2023

    Conference Recap

    American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, 2023

    The American Academy of Religion hosted its 2023 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX, November 18-21. Among the hundreds of panels and roundtable discussions were notable explorations of contemplative practice among scholars of religion, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, and art history….
  • JCS Editor • October 12, 2023

    Generative Contemplation Symposium 2023 Video Proceedings

    Self-Emergent Visions

    The Generative Contemplation Symposium was hosted by the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia in April 2023. The following is the video proceedings along with searchable transcripts of Session IV: Self-Emergent Visions which focused on the deliberate elicitation…
  • JCS Editor • October 5, 2023

    Generative Contemplation Symposium 2023 Video Proceedings

    Dreams and Illusions

    The Generative Contemplation Symposium was hosted by the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia in April 2023. The following is the video proceedings along with searchable transcripts of Session III: Dream and Illusion Practices which focused on the…
  • JCS Editor • July 9, 2026

    Author Insight

    An Article With Muhammed Faruque

    It is one thing to speak of interconnectedness at a theoretical level, but quite another to demonstrate, in practice, that it can be—and indeed is—achieved.
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  • JCS Editor • June 25, 2026

    Contemplation + SENSEmaking

    An Interview with Wolfgang Buttress

    Over the course of about a decade, I began to understand something fundamental: I wasn’t separate from nature—I was part of it.
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  • James MacNee • June 18, 2026

    Workshop on Metaphor in Tibetan Contemplative Literature

    How do metaphors—and the poetic utterances they inhabit—participate in projects of transformation and cultivation within Tibetan literature? In short, how do metaphors work contemplatively?
    Read more
  • JCS Editor • April 30, 2026

    Contemplation + SENSEmaking

    An Interview With Eve Ekman

    I discovered that the mere reflection upon our emotions was an intervention towards well-being.
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  • JCS Editor • April 16, 2026

    Contemplation + Indigeneity

    An Interview With Lance Henson

    Contemplation for me involves being in touch with not just the world, but all of the worlds—the dream and the spiritual worlds—and understanding your place within them. 
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  • JCS Editor • March 27, 2026

    Contemplation + SENSEmaking

    An Interview With Adam Lobel

    As far as there being categories of East and West, of philosophy versus spirituality or religion, I can’t even draw the boundaries anymore. 
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